Graendal believes Rand is too dangerous to be allowed to live, but the Great Lord has forbidden direction action for now. She worries that the Great Lord wants Rand to be Nae'blis. She plans to trick Sammael into killing Rand, since Sammael will be able to call it self defense when Rand attacks Illian.

Rodel Ituralde arrives for an audience, so Graendal switches to her guise as Lady Basene.

Semirhage has been ordered by the Great Lord to extract information from an Aes Sedai. She is the very best at extracting information. During the Age of Legends she was a renowned Healer, but she always enjoyed inflicting pain along with the Healing, for which she was disciplined. This eventually led her to become one of the Forsaken. After stimulating the pain centers in Cabriana Mecandes, she begins the interrogation. After leaving Cabriana, Semirhage beings interrogating Cabriana's warder in another room using pleasure instead of pain. She fails to pay attention and the warder dies of pleasure―he has also bitten off his tongue in a vain attempt to distract himself from the pleasure. When Semirhage goes back into the room with Cabriana, Cabriana seems much more pliable.